If Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is something that you’re considering as a business owner or marketer, you have probably wondered if it’s something that you could manage yourself. PPC is one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your website, generating leads and increasing sales. But is it as easy as it looks?
Pros Of Managing PPC Yourself:
- Cost-effectiveness: one of the biggest advantages of managing your PPC campaigns yourself is cost-effectiveness. Put simply, you won’t have to pay a professional to handle your campaigns.
- Control: by managing your own PPC campaigns, you have complete control over every aspect, meaning that you can make changes to campaigns without speaking to someone first.
- Learn a new skill: you will have an opportunity to learn a new skill as you tackle the ins and outs of PPC.
Cons Of Managing PPC Yourself:
- Time consuming: managing PPC campaigns can be very time-consuming, especially if you’re not familiar with the platform or the best practices. You’ll need to dedicate a significant amount of time to set up and optimise your campaigns for maximum results.
- Steep learning curve: PPC platforms like Google Ads can be complex and overwhelming, especially for beginners. Learning how to use the platform effectively and navigate the various tools can take some time.
- Limited expertise: unless you’re a digital marketing expert, you may not have the knowledge and skills to create effective PPC campaigns. This could result in lower click-through rates, higher costs and lower ROI.
- AI needs data and accurate programming to work: while there are lots of automation options within Google Ads, like any AI, it needs to be programmed correctly to work. You can’t just rely on the generic settings to achieve the most optimal results; what if all of your competitors do exactly the same thing? You need human input to achieve the stand out results.
- PPC is constantly changing: it’s not enough to “set it and forget it” within PPC as there are frequent changes and updates that need to be monitored. You need to be up to date with the latest tweaks otherwise you could be at risk of wasting money.
To Summarise
Fundamentally, it’s worth thinking about how important PPC is to your business. PPC is very profitable when it’s set up to complement your business and get your ads in front of the right people at the right time. However, there are a lot of speed bumps before you get to your destination and there are things that a professional PPC consultant is likely to have encountered before (or something very similar). If this is something that you decide to tackle on your own, as your business scales, it’s highly likely that you will need to transfer your account to a professional anyway so that you can focus on the areas that your business needs to grow.
So, should you manage PPC yourself? The answer depends entirely on your business goals, time limitations and level of expertise. If you have the time and you’re willing to keep up to date with all the changes, it could be a cost-effective way to drive traffic and generate leads. However, if you’re new to PPC or don’t have the necessary skills to wade through the ever changing PPC world, it might be worth considering a professional PPC manager so that you can focus on your own business. Providing you have chosen the right PPC manager, it will be an investment that will pay for itself in the long run.